644 
iRTN A, 
eommunication it is stated, that the stream of lava destroyed in forty 
days, the habitations of twenty-seven thousand persons; and of 
twenty thousand inhabitants of Catania, three thousand only sur- 
vived. In its progress it filled up a lake four fathoms deep, and 
four miles in circuit, and not only so, but raised the cavity into a 
mountain. 
The earl further mentions, that at night he ascended two towers in 
different places, and could plainly see, at the distance of ten miles, 
the fire beginning to run from the mountain in a direct line, and the 
flames rise as high and as large as the loftiest steeples in the British 
dominions, throwing up great stones into the air. He could discern 
this fiery river descending down the mountain, having stones of a 
paler red swimming in it, some of them of the size of an ordinary 
table. The fire moved in several other places, and all the country 
was covered with it ; the flames ascending from different places, and 
smoking like a violent furnace of melted iron, uttering a loud noise, 
especially when large masses fell into tlie sea. The English merchants 
state, in the Philosophical Transactions, that the lava proceeded 
slowly on till it came to the sea, when a most extraordinary conflict 
ensued between the tw'o adverse elements. The noise was more dread- 
ful than the loudest thunder, being heard through the whole country 
tc an immense distance ; the water seemed to diminish and retire 
before the lava, while clouds of vapour darkened the sun. The fish 
on the coast were destroyed, the colour of the sea itself changed, and 
the transparency of its waters lost for a considerable period. They 
represent the fire as spreading three miles in breadth, and seventeen 
in length. In attempting to approach it, they durst not venture 
nearer than about a furlong, apprehensive of an immense pillar of 
ashes, in their view, twice the magnitude of St. Paul’s church in Lon- 
don, and far higher. A continued noise issued from the mouth of 
the opening or cleft, like the beating of the waves of the sea against 
a rock, or like distant thunder, which at times could be heard sixty, 
and even a hundred miles; to which distance ashes were also carried. 
The mouth whence this tremendous inundation proceeded was only 
about ten feet in diameter. According to the testimony of Borelli, 
burning rocks, sixty palms in length, were thrown a mile, and stones 
of inferior dimensions three miles; the sun did not make its appear- 
ance for many weeks, and the day assumed the darkness of the night. 
Four months elapsed before this terrible scene was altered. Borelli 
expresses his deep regret at the destruction of many valuable remains 
of antiquity ; among the rest, an amphitheatre, the Circus Maximus, 
the Naumachia, and some temples. 
A curious circumstance occurred during this eruption, which, Bry- 
done says, may be depended upon as of undoubted authenticity. A 
vineyard belonging to a convent of Jesuits lay directly in the way of 
the lava. This vineyard was formed on an ancient lava, probably a 
tliiii one, with a number of caverns and crevices under it. The liquid 
lava entering into these caverns, soon filled them up, and by degrees 
bore up the vineyard ; and the Jesuits, who every moment expected 
to see it buried, beheld with amazement the whole field beginning to 
move off. It was carried on the surface of the lava to a considerable 
